Year: 2022

GAS EMISSIONS. "One aspect of environmental significance of earthworms discovered recently was the extensive N2O production by microorganisms in the earthworm gut. The numbers of fermentative anaerobes and microbes that used nitrate as a terminal electron acceptor were approximately 2 orders of magnitude higher in the earthworm gut than in the soil from which the earthworms originated." https://lnkd.in/ekT4s-F View in LinkedIn

SOIL TURNOVER CONFIRMED. "Darwin estimated rates of topsoil deposition in the range of 0.20–0.56 cm per year, and the mean amount of soil brought upwards by the worms as 17–40 t per ha per year. More recent studies in Britain, France, Switzerland, and Germany have produced similar values for grass-dominated vegetation in a temperate climate." https://lnkd.in/e8jbAfG View in LinkedIn

GUARDIANS OF THE SOIL. "Earthworms are the single largest contributors to the soil invertebrate biomass in many ecosystems and have long been recognized for the benefits they bring to the environment. Important functions of earthworms include processes such as soil aeration, bioturbation and organic matter fragmentation that are vital for promoting soil structural development and nutrient cycling." https://lnkd.in/eCmCiWT View in LinkedIn

"IN UZBEKISTAN, convoys of lorries bring them vast distances to improve the desert soil. In the Scottish hills, they helped a sheep farmer to increase the size of his flocks by half. And in Wales they are restoring land scarred by open cast mines. The vital ingredient in each case is the earthworm." https://lnkd.in/ez7qDTc View in LinkedIn

SOIL PROCESSING. "In one square metre of a favourable soil environment roughly one litre of soil is contained within an earthworm population’s gut where 4-10% of total soil is consumed annually. Extrapolation indicates that over 10 years ~50% of soil will have passed through an earthworm and ~90% within 40 years. Within the United Kingdom an estimated 89.5 million litres of soil resides in the earthworm gut at any one time (1L M(-2) of favourable UK soil) and therefore the egested material clear represents the major constituent of soil." https://lnkd.in/eVE-4GB View in LinkedIn

BUILDING SOIL STRUCTURE. "Earthworm activity facilitates the physical comminution of organic particles, the amelioration of soil pH, the enhancement of microbial activity, and the mixing of soil from different strata in the profile. They promote the formation of organomineral complexes and, by delivering faecal casts at the surface, they bring organo-mineral crumbs from the deeper parts of the profile to the surface." https://lnkd.in/e8jbAfG View in LinkedIn

CAST FERTILIZER. "Earthworms also facilitate the transport of certain elements to the soil surface so that their faecal casts have concentrations of calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, available phosphorus, and molybdenum that are higher than in the surrounding soil. Therefore, earthworms not only improve the soil texture but also enrich the soil." https://lnkd.in/e8jbAfG View in LinkedIn

EARTHWORM POO. "The intriguing thing about amorphous calcium carbonate is that strictly it shouldn't exist, or at least it shouldn't exist for long enough for us to have spotted it in the earthworm-produced granules. Amorphous calcium carbonate is so unstable that it is almost impossible to make in the laboratory and once made converts to calcite within minutes." https://lnkd.in/e34sEk6 View in LinkedIn

EARTHWORM SOCIETY OF BRITAIN. "Where earthworms are present there are more bacteria and fungi and they are more active. This is important as bacteria and fungi are key in releasing nutrients from organic matter and making them available to plants." (Only in the UK!!). https://lnkd.in/eBKe7X4 View in LinkedIn

ARTIFACTS. "Microorganisms in the earthworm gut and the effect of the gut environment on microbial populations were extensively studied in the past with the classical methods of microbiology. The extensive data on the cultured organisms inhabiting the earthworm-associated ecosystems one should consider with a certain salt grain due to the well-known disadvantages and biases of the plating/culturing techniques." https://lnkd.in/ekT4s-F View in LinkedIn